subject: PCOS And Insulin Resistance – A Deadly Combination? [print this page] PCOS And Insulin Resistance A Deadly Combination?
PCOS and Insulin Resistance often go hand in hand And Insulin Resistance is the forerunner to Diabetes, and increases your risk of Cardiovascular Disease and more
Insulin Resistance refers to a condition where the body organs (muscle, liver, fat cells etc) can not use Insulin properly. This means the pancreas has to make more Insulin to maintain blood sugar and fat levels. (To find out what Insulin is and does see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin)
Insulin Resistance is a central feature in central obesity, glucose intolerance, metabolic syndrome, and Diabetes.
The association between PCOS and Insulin Resistancemay be partiallyexplained by the presence of obesity in PCOS. If you have PCOS, there is a good chance youare overweight or obese. Also, other mechanisms seem to involve genetic (or I should say epigenetic, but we will talk about this in a futurepost) defects in Insulin Signalling, or lower production of a hormone called Adiponectin which is secreted by fat cells to regulate fat metabolismand sugar levels.
Increased levels of Insulin cause a change intheratio of fats in our body. ie an increase in what they call our bad' cholesterol (we will also talk about this in a future post), a decrease in our good' cholesterol, high triglycerides. Also, there is an increase in PAI-1 in PCOS women. Together with higher blood pressure, abdominal obesity, anda state of low grade inflammation (discuss in my book Conquer Your PCOS'),these changes contribute to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and clots.
Impaired glucose intolerance (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impaired_glucose_tolerance) is found in 30-40% of PCOS sufferers by the age of 40! And 10% of the time, Diabetes is diagnosed. Considering what this means to your health, that's very scary stuff! The American College of Clinical Endocrinologists recommend screening for Diabetes by the age of 30 inall PCOS women (overweight or not), and forPCOS women at higher risk, even earlier.
I recommend using a tape measure. If your waistmeasurement is higher than it should be, and you have PCOS, chances are, you may be Insulin Resistant.
Sounds scary? I don't want to scare you. You can certainly decrease your chances of all disease. I do want to inform you, to empower you,however. I want you to know that YOU are in control of your health. You can not blame anyone else for the choices you make each and every day. Choices that in the long run either bring your toward health, or drive you toward dis-ease.
And, irregardless of what the test results say, your aim should not simply be tobe symptom free, your aimshould be abody that is in balance, you should aim for true health and wellbeing.
Next time, I will discuss ways you can decrease your risk of dis-ease
